Tag Archives: Serena Van Der Woodsen

We all know the highlight of Mondays hits at 8 pm when another episode from “the most shocking season ever” of The Bachelor starts. But that means we have to make it ALL the way through the workday before we get to the good stuff. In light of that, I thought I would share with you a personal obsession of mine (other than reality tv) that will probably cause you to feel secondary embarrassment for me.

I am obsessed with high-school themed programming. (There I said it.)

You name it, I’ll watch it.

High-schoolers on the Upper East Side. Check.

High-schoolers basking in the sunshine of Beverly Hills. Check.

High-Schoolers singing in the hallways of Ohio. Check. Check.

High-schoolers solving the mystery of their friends death in fabulous clothes. Check. Check. Check.

Seriously – I LOVE IT.

This is embarrassing because I am significantly closer to 30 than 17. (Woof, just thinking about how long it’s been since I was in high-school is a little depressing.) Despite the age gap between the target audience and myself, I am a devoted fan. You set a show in a high school and you can find it saved on my DVR. Here are my fav four:

Gossip Girl – Four Words. Serena Van Der Woodsen. I love her. I’m willing to look past the fact that she is a horrible friend (always selling her friend out, dating her bff’s ex-boyfriend, generally being selfish), is totally unable to commit to any dude for more than 3 episodes, drinks excessively and parties all the time (actually – that part i love) and generally acts half-dumb most of the time. She is flawless to me. I get upset when the story lines paint her in a bad light. Mostly because I covet her hair. Does anyone have better hair than Blake Lively. Okay this paragraph just got a little creepy… moving on.

Now, I know Gossip Girl is no longer primarily set in high school but who doesn’t think the show jumped the shark a little bit when the gang from Constance graduated? That being said – I still love it. The clothes, the hair, the drama and back-stabbing. Totally unrealistic and totally fabulous.

90210 – Before fully commenting on 90210, I must confess that I am behind on this show. Unfortunately for me and my busy television viewing schedule, 90210 conflicts with something I watch, although I’m not exactly sure what. To be exact, I think I am a full season behind. BUT, thankfully it is next up in my Netflix cue so I am sure I will be caught up soon.

What I love about this high-school show is how they attempt to be based in reality. I will say this is MUCH MORE realistic than Gossip Girl but that’s not saying much. What drew me to this show three separate and distinct things – 1. I loved the original Beverly Hills 90210 and couldn’t wait to see Kelly Taylor back in action. 2. I hate the character Annie. I want to just grab her and shake that smug look off her face every episode. 3. I love Dixon. He is a doll. He’s just so… cute.

I also enjoy how this show has some undertones of the after-school special themed episodes of the early 90’s. The hole Silver nervous breakdown thing definitely had a little bit of Jessie Spano (Saved by the Bell for those of you not as obsessed as me) pill-popping breakdown feel.

GLEE – Is there a better [scripted] show on TV? I cannot get enough of GLEE. I absolutely love it. I love the bitchiness of Santana (it reminds me of a funnier, version of my mean girl self), I love the vapidness of Britney, I love how full of herself Rachel is, I love Puck (just love him), I love how cute Arnie is, I love Mercedes’ sass and I love the dancing Asian kid. There is nothing that I don’t love about this show (okay, that’s not true – I am not a huge fan of the new, rude, weird big girl on the show – Lauren). I even love the played out Finn/Quinn romance and the gender nondescript football coach Biest.

I can pinpoint my love of Glee to the fact that in combines high-school and Broadway – two of my most favorite things. Every Tuesday at 8 pm you can find me parked on the couch staring at the TV screen like a little kid. Why I enjoy one-hour of scripted programming so much is beyond me. I almost feel embarrassed for myself right now for writing this (okay, i am embarrassed for myself).

For those of you who have not yet experienced the fabulousness that is GLEE – here’s a little taste.
(ps – i have no idea why this has spanish subtitles.)

Pretty Little Liars - The clothes, the drama, the mystery, the intrigue, the clothes. Pretty Little Liars is kind of like Desperate Housewives for high school but WAY BETTER. One girl is hooking up with her teacher, one has made out with not one, but TWO of her sisters fiancées, one girl is helping her mother get out of the poor house by doing mean stuff to everyone she knows and one girl is just trying to make it as a lesbian in high school. All of this before we even mention that they are trying to figure out who killed their best friend AND who is sending them mysterious messages from “A.”

This show is up there with Glee in my top shows. They have all the normal high school stereotypes in their posse – jock, smart one, vapid pretty one and introspective pretty one. (Be real, they are all pretty). And they are like little mini-Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda’s (ok maybe not Miranda).

Are they serious with that hair? (abcfamily.com)

The whole focus is on what happened to their mean but awesome bestie Allie who was killed the year before. But the plot on figuring this out is going pretty slow. Usually this would make me really angry and cause me to tune out BUT in this show, it doesn’t bug me. I think it’s because I am distracted by their perfectly styled outfits and exceptionally well-done for high-school hair. (seriously, who had that much time to get ready before school? usually i just threw on whatever i could find half asleep before stumbling out the door).

So all in all, I hope you are leaving this post feeling some strong SE for me or feeling validated that you aren’t the only one who is oddly obsessed with high school shows (this probably says something psychologically about myself but screw that). Either way, it’s a nice way to start out this Monday.